Lawsuit: Kansas City school let violent felon take girl

Lawsuit: Kansas City school let violent felon take girl

Feb. 20, 2018

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City school allowed a violent felon to pick up a 14-year-old student who was then taken to a motel and raped, according to a lawsuit.

The now 21-year-old woman is suing Kansas City Public Schools, a former principal and an attendance secretary at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, alleging the district violated its own policies by allowing the man — a relative and a convicted murderer — to take her from the school in May 2010. He was later convicted in a separate rape of a woman and her young daughter.

Her attorney, Gerald McGonagle, called it a "parent's worst nightmare."

"It shocks the conscience," he told the Kansas City Star . "You send your kids to school, you expect your kids to be safe, and the school allows a predator to come on the premises and walk out with your kid."

The school district said it doesn't comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit alleges the then-teenager was in class in May 2010 when Roy Andrews arrived at the school and told school officials he had authority from the girl's family to pick her. The family was aware of Andrews' criminal history and had not authorized him to take her, according to the lawsuit. Andrews, now 51, is a relative of the girl's mother, McGonagle said.

The lawsuit alleges the school's policy allowed students to be released only to authorized persons. Parents were required to complete a form listing everyone allowed to pick up their children, and the girl's mother did so at the beginning of that school year, the lawsuit alleges.

Andrews left the school with the girl, drove her to a motel in the Kansas City suburb of Independence, and then raped her, the lawsuit said.

Andrews was never charged in the attack. But in 2012, DNA evidence linked him to a 1990 sexual assault of a woman and her 11-year-old daughter. Andrews pleaded guilty just prior to the start of his trial.

McGonagle said evidence from his client's case was used in the discussion that led to the guilty plea. Andrews is now serving an 18-year prison sentence for the 1990 crime.